Richard Hall

NICAP Investigator, Author, Lecturer

(December 25, 1930 - July 17, 2009) was a leading Ufologist and proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis to explain UFO sightings; he has also written numerous books and articles dealing with the role of women in the American Civil War. On the morning of July 17, 2009, Richard Hall died after a long battle with cancer, according to ufologist Jerome Clark and anomalist Patrick Huyghe.

He held a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Tulane University in New Orleans. He lived most of his life in the Washington, D.C. area.

From 1958 to 1969 he worked for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), one of the most prominent and influential UFO civilian research groups in American history. He began as executive secretary, and eventually became NICAP's assistant director. In this role Hall was both an eyewitness and participant to much of the early history of the UFO phenomenon in the United States. Working with NICAP director Donald Keyhoe, he helped lobby the United States Congress to hold public hearings and investigations into the UFO phenomenon. In 1964 Hall researched, edited, and wrote much of The UFO Evidence, a compendium of the best UFO sightings and incidents of the 1940s, 1950's, and early 1960s. A copy of The UFO Evidence was sent to every member of Congress in 1964, and the book is still regarded by many UFO researchers and historians as one of the best UFO books ever published.

Following Keyhoe's ouster as NICAP director in 1969, Hall left NICAP to work as a technical writer and editor. He continued to work in the UFO field. He served as the director of the Fund for UFO Research, which provides grant money to legitimate researchers working in UFO studies. He has also been the editor of the MUFON Journal, the official publication of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), the largest civilian UFO group in America today. In 2001 he wrote a sequel to The UFO Evidence; it covered major UFO incidents from the mid-1960s through the 1990s. He was also the chief editor of the Journal of UFO History, which is published six times per year. Hall was a strong proponent of the theory that UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft from an advanced alien civilization, and he was an active member of the "UFO Updates" message board and website.

To supplement his income as a UFO researcher, Hall worked for many years as an abstractor-indexer for the Congressional Information Service in Bethesda, Maryland. A member of the Authors Guild, Hall also published numerous books and magazine articles dealing with the role of women in the American Civil War, and he maintained a strong interest in Civil War history through his life. (From Wikipedia)

He was the author of three major UFO works: The UFO Evidence, The UFO Evidence, Volume II: A Thirty Year Report, and Uninvited Guests: A Documented History of UFO Sightings, Alien Encounters & Coverups and numerous UFO articles. Hall's landmark book The UFO Evidence is a must-read for anyone with even a slight interest in UFOs.-RMIII

The Paracast held a Richard Hall Remembered show on August 2, 2009